While the case of Russia's Pussy Riot has ended, the fallout continues around the world as musicians, artists and politicians condemn the actions of the Russian court. The Guardian reports that the three women are facing two years in a prison colony over the conviction, and British and American officials have condemned the proceedings. The UK's Foreign Office minister (the equivalent of the Secretary of State) did not mince words saying:

"I am deeply concerned by the sentencing of three members of the band Pussy Riot, which can only be considered a disproportionate response to an expression of political belief

While the US state department said that:

It puts a serious question mark over Russia's respect for international obligations of fair, transparent, and independent legal process.

For more reactions, including some follow up arrests, statements from notable supporters, .

Protestors were arrested outside the court including famous chess grandmaster - and outspoken critic of the Putin administration - Garry Kasparov. Many public figures also criticized the Russian government, with statements coming from Paul McCartney, Madonna, Björk, Sting, Bryan Adams, Moby, the Beastie Boys, Peter Gabriel, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Carrie Brownstein of Portlandia and Sleater-Kinney. Perhaps the most dramatic condemnation came from The Black Keys' Patrick Carney who said:

We will never [play] a show in Russia as long as they imprison innocent musicians for speaking their minds peacefully.

Other outlets have responded in their own way as well. Online radio station, Slacker, launched a Protest station featuring protest music and anti-Putin songs. Anti-Flag teamed up with La Dispute's Adam Vass to produce fundraising posters and a shirt.

Pussy Riot injects new life into punk rock, making it seem real again. When was the last time a Rage Against the Machine song sounded relevant?

Today, Moscow police announced three more potential prosecutions with ninety-seven people detained after the verdict was read. It should be noted that the account linked here is from Russia: Beyond the Headlines, a branch of Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta was founded by a decree of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in 1990, and publishes the official decrees, statements and documents of state bodies. Russia: Beyond the Headlines has arrangements to include it's monthly supplements in a number of high profile newspapers around the world, a list of which can be found here. It has been widely criticised for pushing a strongly pro-Government line, as in a 2007 article in Slate magazine, where it's output was described as follows:

...beneath the shattered syntax of these laughable pieces beats the bloody red heart of the tone-deaf Soviet propagandist.

Prominent opposition activist Garry Kasparov offered fierce resistance to police and bit a police officer on the hand. The policeman was hospitalized with a severe bite.

Footage of Kasparov's arrest can be found on the BBC website, where readers can judge for themselves whether the account of the Russian Government's international PR wing presents an accurate version of events. If you are unable to stream video, an in depth textual and photographic analysis of the arrest is available at ChessBase.com.

Is it me, or does that woman in the picture seem to have the same smug smirk on her face in every photograph she's in? Don't get me wrong, I support P***y Riot and want them freed just like everybody else, but that woman's smirk is starting to annoy me. Get her out of prison so she can go back to sporting the permanent depressed frown every other Russian citizen wears.

It would annoy me if she had murdered somebody and then behaved like that in court. But to be sent away for 2 years on some bullshit victimless crime, I applaud her for having a sense of humor about it.

Were it murder, I'd despise her for it, but even still, there's something about seeing people smirking in cuffs/jail/court that rubs me the wrong way. I don't know what it is. It's like smirking at a funeral or something.

Nearly every one of her photos behind bars or in cuffs are taken with a smile, that kind of winking "yeah, that's right, look how right I am about our cause" kind of expression. Like I said, I support P***y Riot and would like them freed, but that doesn't mean I can't say that that kind of attitude bugs me, even if it's completely justified.

It's interesting that when I Google that woman (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova), it brings up dozens of individual pictures of her looking so ridiculously photogenic, yet when I try to Google the other two women (Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alekhina), it mostly brings up results of group photos of all three and only a small handful of individual photographs of either. Hmm...

For linking to a Google Images search? Yes, the fact that I use Google is a strong indication of an internet addiction. Who else even knows about such obscure corners of the internet but those who spend the most time on it? Truly, I must live and breathe technology.

I just don't appreciate uber-P.C. pricks making ridiculously baseless accusations over me.

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as a forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. The noun troll may refer to the provocative message itself, as in: "That was an excellent troll you posted."

It's obvious on-topic, so how is it inflammatory? Seriously. Explain to me right fucking now how that's inflammatory, or even designed in any way to provoke a negative reaction. EXPLAIN THAT TO ME RIGHT NOW.

I think it's absolutely fucking ridiculous that in just about every Pussy Riot thread there are people going off on completely extraneous tangents or saying things that are completely downplaying the severity of the situation (and, in the earliest posts about this story, people commenting on the attractiveness of the girls), yet when I just merely point out that this woman is smiling in nearly every one of her pictures and it mildly bugs me, people give me so much fucking heat you'd think I was the one who put them in jail.

So please, oh, enlightened one, explain to me just how my comment - my "Is it me, or does that woman in the picture seem to have the same smug smirk on her face in every photograph she's in?" which I backed up with LINKS - is designed to reflect poorly on this woman, or even speaks about her in a derogatory tone. Explain it to me right now.

Or better yet, e-mail me. Skibz777@gmail.com. Please, by all means, e-mail me at my own private fucking e-mail address and tell me exactly why I'm being a "troll", you miserable, self-righteous idiot. It takes fucking work to come off as a more pathetic waste of internet space than myself. Please, give me your feedback. I'm fucking dying to hear it.

Oh my God, I was shaking with rage when I wrote that. I've never been called a "troll" before, and that just really hits you hard when you're actually voicing an honest opinion. It'd be one thing if I was going off on my usual exaggerated tangents, but to pull the "troll" card on such an innocuous comment? For God's sake, look at eazyd2's post right below me! He calls them "retards"! That's the literal definition of a "troll", and yet MY comment, which merely FACTUALLY observes that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova smiles in the majority of her courtroom photos, and my PERSONAL opinion that it bugs me is what YOU consider to be "trolling"? H-...how does that even register with you? I honestly don't understand. Did you mean to reply to eazyd2's comments? Or even the inexplicable posts calling Sting a "cunt"? How the HELL do you single out MY comment amongst any of those? I *legitimately* do NOT understand. I really, really, really, fucking don't.

Fucking hell, this genuinely upset me, and I have no idea why. I'm actually short of breath. People here have insulted me in practically every conceivable manner, but this one just really cut through my skin. Ugh.

Feel free to still e-mail me if you want, but I'm going to bed. I'm really stressed out right now.

Okay, I'm genuinely sorry I had to result to name-calling and profanity. That's very much unlike me, I just caved into my impulses too easily and too quickly. Your comment just really, really upset me, mostly because it caught me so off guard for the reasons I've provided above. My points still stand, and I stand behind them firmly, but I sheepishly withdraw all the immature insults and vulgarities. I apologize. Really.

I would still greatly desire speaking to you at some point (preferably through e-mail because I doubt I'm going to feel like posting here again for several weeks/months) so we can clear everything up and come to a mutual understanding, because, unless if you really did mean to post that under another comment, I believe you are profoundly mistaken and I would like to talk it over. Let me know.

I'm interested to hear you say that, as I've been looking at my use of the word you're referring to. I realize it's wrong, but I'm having trouble knowing where to draw the line. Idiot, moron, halfwit etc. all fall under the same category as retard and all derivations thereof, traditionally.

Ugh, thank you. In fact one could argue that by using "retard" casually, one lessens its painful connotation for the mentally disabled. "Idiot" no longer refers to epileptics and autistics and hydrocephalics because it entered popular parlance as meaning a developmentally normal person with far-below-average cognitive ability. "Retard" is too good a word to exclude from the lexicon just because of its dubious past. It means something different now.

And fucking YES, they are DIS-abled, not "differently abled." God, this PC shit makes me want to cry.

I agree on the disabled vs. differently abled thing. My body and mind are functional in every way, but my friend can thrash me up and down the street at chess. We're all differently abled, but the word 'disabled' refers specifically to those who require assistance to live their lives, whether that be a wheelchair, or a carer, or any other facility or service. I never use it in a perjorative sense, but I can see how it might cause offense if it were.

If I am blind or have no legs, I am lacking in ability that most people posses. Therefore I am DIS-abled. EVERYONE is differently-abled, but only some of us have been completely deprived of a common trait by incident or mutation. There's no value judgement there. Your burger with no onion isn't any better or worse than my burger, it's just been dis-onioned.

It doesn't mean something different now, though. In 2003, it was voted the single most derogatory term one could describe a disabled person as by users of the BBC's 'Ouch!' section. Granted, that's nine years back, but still. Also, I don't think people without mental disabilities are in any position to declare a word fair game, because we aren't the ones who've been on the receiving end of that word's connotations. I'm assuming you aren't disabled, since you refer to disabled people as 'they'.

Also, I would like to point out that, even though I support these girls 100%, I find it quite sad that the whole world seems to have an opinion and speak out.. yet, when Russia did a genocide in Chechnya few years ago, not a single country made a comment or took a stand against it...

I feel that way as well. Look at the attention, dissent, and quotes of support, P***y Riot is getting, while there's little press about the horrible mass-shooting by police on striking miners in South Africa last week.